Sanders case may have ripple effects

That message forms the core of a complicated case involving East Stroudsburg University's former chief fundraiser, Isaac Sanders, who was fired in 2008 over a scandal involving money and sex.

Sanders came to public attention only in 2007, when several former students claimed in a lawsuit that he had propositioned them for sex, offering them cash and gifts for their favors.

Yet complaints about Sanders' job performance had swirled behind the scenes but beyond the university long before the sex scandal broke. One document recently uncovered in court filings show that local philanthropist Bill Cramer complained in 2003 that Sanders had mishandled an endowed scholarship that Cramer had set up in honor of his mother through the ESU Foundation. Cramer said part of the principal of the endowment was used improperly to cover administrative costs. Cramer replenished the gap in 2001, but had trouble from 2005 until after Sanders was fired in obtaining regular reports on the fund's status.

Sanders' former assistant, Carolyn Bolt, complained to then-ESU President Robert Dillman in 2007 about Sanders' management of the money in a private, charitable foundation that Sanders led. Bolt also complained the way Sanders and another assistant, Charles Dent, handled ESU Foundation funds, and complained about a hostile work environment. Bolt went on leave, then eventually left her position after receiving a $140,000 settlement.

Dillman outlined in an October 2008 letter to Sanders reasons why he was being fired. Dillman cited Sanders' mishandling of a scholarship fund that ESU alumna Doris Imbt helped create in 1988. Sanders diverted a $56,698 check sent from Imbt's estate in 2007 to the ESU Foundation's general fund. Dillman also chastised Sanders in the termination letter for having used foundation funds to pay off a student's outstanding bill. The student whose bill Sanders paid was one of several of the plaintiffs who accused Sanders of extracting sexual favors.

Money matters. It matters especially when people are donating it to an institution and expecting it to be safeguarded and used properly for the designated purpose. Substantive complaints reached Sanders, the university board and even the president for several years before the sex scandal — itself still unresolved — brought Sanders' conduct into the public eye, and another year passed before Sanders finally got the boot.

This newspaper continues exploring the myriad public documents it received and will continue reporting on the Sanders saga. In a recent interview, Cramer, a prominent lawyer and civic activist, asked a question that explains why that research is still important even though Sanders is gone.

"If they were treating me this way," Cramer said, "what were they doing to other people?"